Jumbo Package: Freshmen studs JoJo Earle and Camar Wheaton getting work in the return game

Inspirational Speaker Is Inspirational

Ernie Johnson dropped by the Alabama Football program, and gave a powerful lecture to the folks in Crimson. Check it out:

—

Coach’s Poll

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

The first Coach’s Poll dropped, and ‘Bama is again preseason No. 1. The rest of the Top 10 will look passingly familiar — Clemson, Jawjah, Ohio State, etc.

—

Filthy Lucre

Want to catch some Bama games without paying?

How about the Tide pay you?

Alabama is hiring ticket takers etc. for this fall. I was a Game Program kid at BDS when I was in 9th and 10th grade, and then did this gig for a while in college (because I was too damned cheap to even pay $100). So, I got to see a lot of cool games and get drug money cash in my pocket. It’s a perfect way to get your kid off the Playstation and put some jingle in their jangle at the same time.

Details here.

—

Practice Notes

Yesterday was Alabama’s 5th practice, and we are just 23 days away from the start of ‘Bammer Ball, Pawwwwl.

Here is Nick Saban’s presser in toto, as always from 247. Of particular note is that fact that freshmen Camar Wheaton and JoJo Earle are both getting looks in the return game, and Trey Sanders has no practice limitations.

The skills positions are simply filthy loaded, y’all.

“We’re still working. It’s a work in progress. We’re trying to develop some punt return guys, but JoJo (Earle) has been really good at that and has shown some promise doing it. Ja’Corey Brooks has shown some promise doing it, fielding the ball, doing a good job. Slade (Bolden) did it last year, so he’s reliable to be able to do it. Kickoff return, we’ve got a few more guys that we’re looking at. Jameson Williams is back there, Camar Wheaton’s back there, the other running backs are back there doing it,” Saban said. “A little bit more to choose from than we had a year ago depth-wise.”

—

Unfortunately, one player that Alabama won’t have is WR Xavier Williams. He was finally starting to look like the player we suspected he could be, and there are spots open to be had. This was his year to get on the field.

And then his health took a turn for the disastrous.

Alabama wide receiver Xavier Williams will not play in 2021 because of “medical issues,” coach Nick Saban revealed Wednesday evening.

Williams, who was entering his fourth season with the Tide, was removed from the roster prior to fall camp.

“Without saying what, he’s medically not gonna play this year,” Saban said.

I’m not going to speculate, or even ask around, but we do send our best wishes on a speedy recovery to X and hope to see him next season.

Teachable Moment Incoming

Want to know why Jaleel Billingsley missed practice the other day? Want to also know why Jaleel Billingsley probably received an ass-chewing that strip paint off the walls?

He violated the team’s COVID protocols, and the head man was...upset.

—

Two Minutes Hate

Man, this Baylor thing has me all kinds of flummoxed. Let’s take a few things as given in the BU allegations:

• All the allegations are true
• The NCAA is wholly unprepared to deal with criminality

But, in this case, it’s not just the Title IX violations, and it wasn’t just the crimes being committed. It’s the fact that there was such a clear nexus between the criminal actions and the actions of the school to retain eligibility for players, that I think you have to pull the trigger.

Baylor University tanked careers of their employees for student athletes. Coaches leaned on local police. They hid evidence of violent sexual assaults. Administrators pressured the local press. Access to pliable young women — taken without repercussions was even a recruiting ploy. The Title IX officer, coaches, the AD, and President Ken Starr intimidated witnesses and victims — and it was all done to keep rapists (like allegedly Shawn Oakman) out of the pokey and on the field.

Yesterday, the NCAA found that Baylor did in fact provide impermissible benefits, just that these things weren’t among them — despite being true, and despite there plainly being a nexus.

But, nope.

Afeared of litigation, BU got a wrist-slap, and the NCAA released its most gutless, dickless, witless COI report ever — an opus of such sniveling, mousey obsequiousness and hand-wringing, that it would do justice to a begging orphan in Victorian England.

F Baylor. F every last Briles, dead or alive. F Ken Starr, F his mom, F his mom’s mom. F the NCAA. Anf F Mark Emmert’s moral failure in particular.

Here is the NCAA’s absolutely vile, spineless, cowardly report.

whew. glad I got that off my chest.

—

We (Don’t) Want Bama!

Vol fans are over the Alabama-Tennessee rivalry, with many saying they’d gladly either stop playing it, or require every other East team to play the Tide for an annual pre-scheduled whooping.

We’ve broke them, y’all. #MHAQ

In light of the Vols largely historical irrelevance over the past 30-35 years, and them rolling over to show their tummy like a whipped dog, I nominate LSU as the true rivalry of the 21st century. As much as I hate a Vol, I’m willing to consider the proposition.

—

Never Tweet

Don’t expect Nick to be the Doogie on TikTok or anything.

Ball & Oats

Alabama is a finalist for the services of 5-star guard Nick Smith, Jr, and of all the teams on his list, he raved of the Tide’s recent success in developing lottery players at his position.

Alabama: “I like their style of play and coach Oats is a great coach to play for. I really just like how they play and how coach Oats treats his players. I can see myself fitting in. There’s been a couple guards this year and last year since coach Oats has been at Alabama that made it to the league. There’s been like six players from Alabama that went to the league and two went lottery so getting to learn from him would be a great deal and I’m just trying to build a relationship with them.”

Speaking of hoops, Kira Lewis Jr. and Primo Levi are going to make for a dynamic young tandem with the Pelicans.

FINALLY

If you watched the Christopher Nolan film “Momento,” you were probably horrified at the notion of having a dissociative fugue: waking up in a strange place, not knowing who you were or why you were there. You know nothing about your life except for strange and enigmatic markings on your body.

What if I told you that at this very moment, there is a man in a Kansas City Hospital undergoing that very thing?